Myanmar woman who said she was raped, sparking sectarian violence, said to have lied

(Photo: REUTERS / Minzayar)Rohingya women and their children wait to receive treatment at a makeshift clinic in the Thet Kae Pyin camp for internally displaced people in Sittwe, Rakhine state, April 24, 2014. Restrictions on international aid have exacerbated a growing health crisis among stateless Muslim Rohingya in west Myanmar. In February, Myanmar's government expelled the main aid group providing health to more than half a million Rohingya, Medecins Sans Frontieres-Holland (MSF-H), after the organisation said it had treated people believed to have been victims of violence in southern Maungdaw township in January. The United Nations says at least 40 Rohingya were killed there by Buddhist Rakhine villagers. The government denies any killings occurred. An attack in March on NGO and U.N. offices by a Rakhine mob led to the withdrawal of other groups providing healthcare and other essential aid to another 140,000 Rohingya living in camps.

The woman who said she was raped, sparking conflict between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar's second-largest city earlier this month, has confessed she made up the story, State media has quoted a government department as saying.

Quoting the Ministry of Home Affairs, the government daily New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported the Buddhist woman was paid to make false claims against two Muslim brothers.